African Swine Fever Fact Sheet

African Swine Fever (ASF) is a high-threat foreign animal disease that is highly transmissible and results in up to 100% mortality in swine. It originated in Africa, spread through Eastern Europe, and resulted in an outbreak in China in 2018. ASF has rapidly spread throughout China, resulting in the death of approximately 40 percent of its swine. The disease is now in over 50 countries, which significantly increases the risk of spread to disease-free countries, including the U.S. On an annual basis, more than 115 million hogs go to market in the U.S. with a market value of $24 billion. The U.S. is also the largest pork exporter in the world and is currently free from the disease. Due to the potential threat of ASF being introduced to the U.S., the Plum Island Animal Disease Center (PIADC)’s interagency senior leadership group formed the PIADC ASF Task Force, aimed at interagency coordination of ASF applied research, diagnostics and collaboration with industry, academia and international partners working on ASF countermeasures.